THE TRAITORS, MR BATES VS THE POST OFFICE AND MORE AT EDINBURGH TV FEST

By K Monroe 

THE Traitors, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, and Late Night Lovett are just some of the shows up for an award at Screen Scotland’s The Edinburgh TV Festival (ETF), the UK’s leading television industry event. 

The annual event in August which brings a host of big names from behind the scenes and front of camera to Edinburgh has announced the shortlist for its prestigious TV Awards, which are supported by Cast & Crew.  

Despite an unbelievably challenging year for many, the television industry has proven to be an impactful force for good for both viewers and society at large, setting the news agenda with the likes of Mr Bates vs The Post Office, creating water-cooler moments with entertainment series like The Traitors, and providing escapism and laughs with programmes like Late Night Lycett. The TV Awards list of nominees reflects the creativity, innovation, passion and resilience of this community, with the UK’s traditional broadcasters dominating the shortlist.  

Double BAFTA Award winning British television personality, chef and musician Zuhair Hassan, otherwise known as Big Zuu, will take the helm as 2024 Jury President, overseeing the voting via juries made up of industry names. Since Big Zuu’s Big Eats launched on UKTV in 2020, he has become a household name and has gone on to host Big Zuu’s Breakfast Show on ITV and Big Zuu’s 12 Dishes in 12 Hours on ITV. Most recently Zuu fronted BBC Two documentary Big Zuu Goes to Mecca, he has also acted in UKTV’s Sneakerhead, hosted the 1Xtra Residency, released a cookbook and launched his own podcast, Feast is Feast. Zuu is a co-founder of Big Productions, an entertainment label specialising in factual and music content with the goal of nurturing and developing diverse talent in the industry.  

Big Zuu said: “It is an honour to be asked to chair the Jury for this year’s TV Awards. Between the pandemic, the strikes and the recession, it has been a really challenging couple of years for our industry. The talent on display in this shortlist is a timely reminder of how valuable our sector is, so I am really excited to be a part of this year’s process.” 

The shortlist for this year’s Awards is packed full of the best acting and producing talent in the television industry from across the UK and internationally. With a broad range of broadcasters and streamers nominated, the BBC leads the shortlist with 23 nominations across the broadcaster and individual talent categories. Channel 4amassed 19 nominations and ITV 10, with global streamers Apple TV+ and Disney+ securing 6 nominations each.

The Edinburgh TV Awards will be held at the EICC on Thursday 22nd August

DOUGRAY SCOTT SON IS A CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCK

His Glenrothes Fife born dad is best known for his roles in Mission: Impossible II, Desperate Housewives, and My Week with Marilyn, and now Gabriel Trevis Scott is going to star alongside him - in the latest series of Irvine Welsh’s hit book to TV adaptation Crime. 

 Twenty five year old Gabriel will play the nephew of Dougray’s much tormented character Lothian and Borders detective inspector Ray Lennox who attempts to recover from a mental breakdown induced by stress, cocaine and alcohol abuse and a child murder case in Edinburgh  in the series which made its debut in 2021.

And Gabriel’s role of Fraser, who is described by Dougray as ‘a young man searching for his identity’, will be one of his biggest yet following previous parts in House of the Dragon as Jerrel Bracken and His Dark Materials as Father Heyst. 

Gabriel, whose mother is Dougray’s former wife Sarah Trevis, is twin brother to his sister Eden and shares the same smouldering looks as his 57 year old father.

He is brother to Dougray’s son Milo who the actor adopted with his new wife actress Claire Forlani. 

 Like his dad who studied from 1984 to 1987, where he received the Most Promising Drama Student Award, Gabriel who was born in Hammersmith, West London, also attended Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, and graduated there in 2020. 

During his time at drama school he worked as a Stunt fighter and horse-rider on an action film The Lady of Heaven. 

Before going to RWCMD, he also attended courses at the National Youth Theatre of GB and Drama Centre, London and according to his IMDB profile, Gabriel also worked at a Refugee camp teaching children English and basic computer skills as well as learning basic Thai to become a trained Elephant Handler.

Dougray, who appeared at Edinburgh Television Festival to talk about the new season of ITVX show Crime alongside actress Joanna Vanderham and writer Irvine Welsh was clearly proud of his sons’s achievements as he talked about him during a Q and A. 

And he was keen to dispel any talk of nepotism around his casting. 

After watching a clip how his son in action, he told the audience: “My son Gabriel - he was great. He was great. He won the role against a lot of people. He played my nephew and went through that whole process.”

“He was terrific and brought a great sense of vulnerability to that character.  

He added: “He plays a kid, a young man who is growing up and searching for identity, which is very sort of relevant to today. 

“We live in a time now where quite rightly and wonderfully we are all starting to be allowed to breathe as human beings in a sense and call ourselves whoever we want to be and this character is going through that and who is he? Am I this or that? I don’t know who I am  and that sense of confusion or struggle and he brought something quite genuine and authentic to the character. He did a fantastic job.”

Asked what his son would say about acting with him he joked: “He would say I’m a f***ing... I know I am. I’m not. I’m not. I’m not.”

Dougray divorced Gabriel and Eden’s mother Sarah in 2005 and she was given full custody of the twins, something which Dougray was vocal about at the time which led to antagonism between the two. 

He previously said that he never tried to tell his children what to do in life while they were growing up.

He revealed that they grew up very close and supported one another, but there was also a lot of fight between them.

Keen to let them make their own mistakes he said: "When I felt I needed to step in and take a tough line, I did, but I was reluctant to do that because I never wanted to be an overbearing parent," he said, hoping he managed to find that balance he had planned.”

The new season’s story, which will feature a transgender character and is based on the novel The Long Knives, will see Lennox lead an investigation into a case about “vengeance, identity and social justice.”

Dougray, who  won an Emmy for his role in series one, said: “The second series delves deeper into his background, his relationship with his family and his abuse as a child."The resonance and rawness of the character unfolds even greater. It is an examination of how grown men cope with that.”

Irvine Welsh who reckons season two is a superior piece of television to season one and hopes to build on its success, said Gabriel had unsurprisingly ‘great chemistry’ with his real life dad during the making of the series.

He exclusively told theshowbizlion.com: “Gabriel well he just auditioned and he was absolutely fabulous and the benefit is that he is Dougays son but has to play his nephew in it and obviously he looks like his nephew because he looks like his son. And he was brilliant just an incredible actor and he brought a lot of sensitivity and a lot of feeling to quite a challenging role. The chemistry with him and Dougray was fabulous and he just really gave it an extra dimension so hats off to Gabriel.”

DAME JUDI DENCH ARRIVES IN EDINBURGH FOR TV FEST

Beverley Lyons 
Dame Judi Dench and Craig Revel Horwood got on the fast track to make it to Edinburgh for a special edition of The Repair Shop.

Legendary actress Dame Judi and Strictly judge Craig are appearing at this year‘s Edinburgh TV festival for an entertaining edition of the hit show as it marks its fifth anniversary. 

The BBC One show sees members of the public bring their family heirlooms in need of restoring to a team of experts led by furniture restorer and host Jay Blades.

The 87-year-old, who took in a pocket watch which belonged to her late husband, actor Michael Williams to the show,  relaxed on her way from London to Scotland on the LNER line as she enjoyed doing the crossword in between having some toasted tea cake. 

Craig, 57,also enjoyed some food as he travelled on the 4pm from London yesterday. 

He took in a life-like chimp from Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical, Sunset Boulevard, which was given to him as an opening night present.

Jamie Michael Wells who works for LNER said: “I felt privileged and honoured to meet Dame Judie Dench. 
She is such a lovely lady who loved to chat. 

“She and Strictly judge Craig Revel Horwood were up filming for The Repair Shop. 
She did mention her love for Edinburgh  I’m looking forward to seeing them on the return journey.”

Creative director of the festival Stewart Clarke said: “This is the perfect opening entertainment piece and we would like to thank everyone involved for bringing a bit of The Repair Shop magic of the barn to the TV Festival, it’s going to be an absolute must-see.”

Fans can watch the special edition of the show on the Edinburgh TV festival on the  Edinburgh TV Festival You Tube